


The Space Stone, and What Happens Next

by Dillian



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Dimension - Suggested in Canon, Alternate Dimension-Loki, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Dimension-Hopping, F/M, M/M, Other, Science Bros, Science Bros Plus One
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-02-26 15:32:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18719911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dillian/pseuds/Dillian
Summary: More tags and pairings to be added as-needed.Warning, Spoilers ahead.  If you haven't seen Endgame yet, I would strongly encourage you not to read this, or anything with any spoilers at all.  You will enjoy the movie so much more if it's all a surprise to you....That being said:  You remember all the other possible dimensions that Dr. Strange was talking about in Infinity War?  This is what happens in one of them.





	1. "I'm Bored."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,  
> South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,  
> Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television,  
> North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe,  
> Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom,  
> Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye,  
> Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen,  
> Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye.
> 
> We didn't start the fire,  
> It was always burning  
> Since the world's been turning.  
> We didn't start the fire,  
> No we didn't light it  
> But we tried to fight it.”  
> \-- Billy Joel, “We Didn’t Start the Fire”

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** ****  
**Characters: Tony Stark, Bruce Banner** **  
** **Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.]**

Tony Stark is insane.  This isn’t the fun kind like kids say, “Ooh, he’s _crazy_ ,” like that.  He’s literally insane.  One day he throws SHIELD’s nuke through the wormhole and nearly dies.  What does he do after that?

“Oh, I want _shawarma_ , do you want _shawarma_?  Let’s all go have _shawarma_ ,” that’s what he does.

The next day, he almost dies again.  Something happens with the arc reactor that he wears in his chest...  And let’s not even get into how crazy that is, all right? He’s not in Afghanistan now.  There is medical technology here, to repair his heart. ...Something goes wrong with it, anyway, there he is on the ground seizing.  That night, he’s in a hospital bed, but the next day?

Here’s the text Bruce gets:  “I’m bored. Are you bored? Meet me at Stark Tower.”

Bruce goes.  Why? Good question.  Is he bored? Bored doesn’t really come into it.  When you’re carrying around a green chaos machine inside of you, you don’t get bored, you’re too busy trying to survive.  Is he lonely? Bruce is always lonely, so it’s not that either.

“You’re kind of a case study to me, you know that?”  This is him, getting off the (miraculously undamaged) elevator, at the penthouse floor.

“I’m perfectly safe, you know.”  Tony’s wearing his Iron Man mask.  He’s wearing the gloves. The rest of the suit is (presumably?) in the case on the floor, over by his toolbox.  He turns to look at Bruce, gestures with the wrench in his right hand. “The helmet filters the air, toxins you know.  Listen, do you need a respirator or something?”

“Not needed,” Bruce says.  “I’ve got the Other Guy…”

Tiresome explanation time, here:  Gamma radiation is funny stuff. If you’re exposed to too much of it, it mutates you.  Bruce has been living with the Other Guy for long enough now that he knows some of the ways he’s been changed.  He doesn’t know all of them. He knows the Hulk is indestructible. Is he indestructible himself too? This, he has never tested.  Maybe he doesn’t need to be indestructible, maybe when he gets in too much danger Hulk will come out, not to protect him, but for his own safety.  He didn’t come out at the Tower, that afternoon. Did that mean Bruce’s lungs were mutated enough to tolerate the air? Did it mean Tony was mistaken, and the air was all right?  More likely, it meant Hulk doesn’t understand the risk of bad air. He’s not a complex creature, difficult concepts are beyond him. Should Bruce have worn the mask? Probably. Maybe Bruce doesn’t care if a risk comes along sometime, that’s too complex, and Hulk doesn’t understand it.  Maybe that risk would kill him. Hulk would still be alive, probably, but you know what? Maybe that’s all right. Bruce has been dealing with him for a long time. Let him be somebody else’s problem for awhile.

That was too detailed and too self-pitying.  Explanation time over.

“...I’ve got the Other Guy,” Bruce tells Tony, “I don’t need a mask.”

“If you’re sure?”  Tony sounds like he doesn’t really believe him, but he doesn’t make an issue out of it, so that’s alright.  “What about gloves? He gestures toward the toolbox. “They’re in there.”

Experience has shown that the Hulk won’t protect him from minor injuries.  Bruce takes the gloves. They’re folded in one compartment of the toolbox. The other compartments are all full of your normal, home-repair kind of supplies.

Bruce saw that, and he looked at Tony.  “You’re not really going to try and repair this building all by yourself?”

“Of course not.”  Tony’s moving furniture when he says it.  All that big, super-expensive looking furniture of his, all pale greys, and leather, stuff that’s impossible to keep clean, typical rich-people furniture.  He’s moving it all over to one side of the room, exposing a floor of what looks like solid marble, with a huge crack down the middle of it. He’s shoving, and he’s pushing.  “You wouldn’t care to lend a hand?” he calls out, after awhile.

This is probably where Bruce realized that the man is insane.  As in, if you’ll remember, he’s literally crazy. No judgment at all, of course.  After having lived so long with the Hulk, Bruce is probably crazy himself too, that is, if he wasn’t already to begin with. Tony is crazy, though .  He should be in a hospital bed, hooked up to monitors. Instead, he’s here, moving furniture.

And, Bruce should have helped him.  But he was kind of curious to see how far the man would go, before he gave up.  “I’m the weak one, remember?” he says. “Maybe if you’re lucky, the Other Guy’ll show up, and he’ll help.”

Tony’s game, you have to give him that (even if he is absolutely crazy).  Bruce’s comment gets a spurt of laughter out of him, sort of grunted, exhausted laughter, but still.  “Funny,” he says, sort of out of breath. “You’ve got a sense of humor.” He keeps shoving, and pushing, finally he has all the furniture moved off of the marble floor.  Then, looking at Bruce again, “Are you going to help at all?” he says. “You could grab that tape measure out of the box.”

Bruce did.  He takes it over to Tony, and soon they’re measuring to see how long the crack is, how deep it is, etcetera.  “Why are we doing this, anyway?” he asks.

Tony just says, “I told you already, I got bored.”

It simultaneously makes no sense, and all the sense in the world, to spend the whole afternoon fixing things in Tony Stark’s over-expensive penthouse, the day after the Chitauri invasion.  And “bored” is at once exactly the wrong word, and exactly the right one, to explain why one would do it. Here’s the thing: There’s not much else for them to do. The Chitauri are neutralized.  The wormhole is closed. Loki disappeared, but Thor’s on that It’s “a family matter,” apparently. Their father, who is “the All-Father, who can see all the Nine Realms,” is dealing with it. How?  By seeing all the Nine Realms, presumably. No place for mortals, at any rate; mortals are not needed. And Hawkeye, Black Widow and Captain America are back working for SHIELD again, and SHIELD is dealing with Loki’s sceptre.

“What about the rest of the city?”  Bruce and Tony are taking a break at one point.  This is after fixing a leak in one of the bathrooms that Tony says is very important, because otherwise it’ll flood the tech on the lower floors.  They’re sitting on the piled-up leather sofas, drinking glasses full of a godawful green concoction, that Tony brought with him. Bruce asks that, and Tony looks at him.

“The rest of the city?”

Bruce gestures with his glass.  The big expensive picture window is broken, but beyond that?  Total devastation, like beyond anything Hulk could cause. Like a warzone.  “All that,” he says, “the buildings, the cars, the toxic dust.”

“The Stark Foundation’s taking care of that.”  Tony says it like it should have been obvious, and, looking back, it should have been.  Tony Stark’s richer than God. Obviously he’s got a foundation named after him, that can rebuild entire cities.  Just for a second after he realizes that, Bruce thinks how helpless it must feel sometimes, to always have a foundation cleaning things up for you.  You’d never have to do anything for yourself, would you? No wonder Tony gets bored, and does crazy things like wearing arc reactors in his chest, instead of having heart surgery, and trying to rebuild his penthouse with his bare hands.

Then the thought passes.  “Obviously, the Stark Foundation,” he says, with a tinge of sarcasm, but it’s friendly sarcasm, in his voice.  “I should have known.”

“Yeah, you should have.”  Tony gulps the rest of his green juice.  “Time to get back to work?”

They get back to work.  That day, they fix a leak in the bathroom, and another one in the kitchen.  They take apart several cabinets (solid walnut, _of course_ ), cleaning out all the broken dishes and such, and throwing them away, salvaging what’s left.  What’s left includes a decanter of very expensive liquor. “20-year old Scotch,” Tony says, like it should mean something.  After they’ve measured cracks in walls and flooring, and Tony’s checked to make sure the network of his building-wide AI is still intact (it is), they have a little of the Scotch, before going out to eat.

“You’re a good worker.”  This is Tony, on their way to dinner.  “Your green partner doesn’t have all the muscles, you have some too.”

Bruce was feeling generous by this point, for some reason.  “You going to be working tomorrow?” he said. “I could come by and help.”

Tony’s grin felt weirdly good, when he said, “Yeah, why not?  I could use the help.”


	2. "Puny god is back."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “We've known each other for so long,  
> Your heart's been aching but you're too shy to say it.  
> Inside we both know what's been going on.  
> We know the game and we're gonna play it  
>    
> And if you ask me how I'm feeling,  
> Don't tell me you're too blind to see.
> 
> Never gonna give you up,  
> Never gonna let you down,  
> Never gonna run around and desert you.  
> Never gonna make you cry,  
> Never gonna say goodbye.  
> Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you”  
> \-- Rick Astley, “Never Gonna Give You Up”

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** ****  
**Characters: Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Loki of Asgard** **  
** **Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.]**

The next day, Loki showed up, and it nearly killed Tony.  They were off-guard at that point. Bruce had gotten there first thing in the morning, who even knows why.  Tony was already there, though. Looked like he’d been there for hours. His text: “I’m on the Third Floor.”

That was where Bruce went.  Tony was working on the famous JARVIS, the AI that pretty much controls his life, his house(es), and his suit, probably his car, even.  He looks up. “I’ve almost got him back online,” he says. “It’ll be just a sec.”

It’s not “just a sec,” because it never is, with Tony.  After awhile, he’s done, though. He raises and lowers blinds, turns on and off all the faucets in the bathroom adjoining his workspace.  He makes JARVIS sing, for some reason, the rick-roll song. Then, when he’s quite satisfied, he gets up and brushes imaginary dust off his hands.  “You ready for another day of work, Bruce?” he says.

That day, they work with a soundtrack.  Back online, JARVIS blasts the Heavy Metal music Tony loves so famously.  It also blasts various other things, throughout the day. Tony seems to have a vague idea of what good manners should look like, and he does try.  “ _Not_ Heavy Metal?”  He must have seen Bruce wince, at some point, and he says this, like it’s the most surprising thing in the world that anyone wouldn’t want their eardrums blasted out.  “What, then?” he says. Then, when Bruce doesn’t give him much of an answer (not having had a whole lot of time to listen to music, in the past few years), he starts blasting random snatches of everything, every few minutes or so.  There’s classic rock, and jazz. At one point, JARVIS plays the rick-roll song again, then it switches to a YouTube playlist, called “Chill Hip-Hop Beats.” As an attempt at good manners, it is considerate, but it always ends in failure, because inevitably, JARVIS will always go back to Iron Maiden.  Finally, Bruce just gives up and tunes it out.

Today, they’re removing drywall and insulation.  Tony keeps his mask in place. He nags Bruce and nags him about wearing a respirator, and finally they compromise on one of those paper masks that don’t do anything, from the hardware store.  “I’m not going to lose a good friend, just when I barely got him,” Tony says. This probably doesn’t mean much, Tony seems like the kind of guy who goes through life calling everybody his “friend,” but it still feels nice.

What would have been nicer, would have been for Bruce to say something similar back to him, only somehow that’s never what happens in these circumstances, is it?  “You do remember I’ve got the Other Guy?” Bruce said it, and even at the time he knew he sounded irritable. “I’m indestructible,” he very nearly grumbled. Anybody but Tony Stark would probably have given up, after that, but Tony seems to think everyone loves him.  He just keeps on working. Every now and then he makes some joke about giving Bruce all the most dangerous jobs, since he’s “indestructible.”

This is what they’re doing when Loki shows up:  There is a pillar in the center of the main room of the penthouse.  “I think it’s damaged,” Tony said. “Here, you stand next to it. You’re indestructible, so you don’t need to worry if it gives way and the entire roof falls down.”

“Ha, ha, ha,” was Bruce’s not-so-brilliant response.  He ended up behind a computer screen, reading specs off to Tony, so he could measure everything.

It was right about then, that Loki did show up.  Not in terms of he walked into the room, of course, nothing like that, but instead, one minute he wasn’t there, and then the next minute, he was.  Of course, Tony sees him first, and of course he practically falls over. Of course, Loki sees that, and _of course_ the look on his face is pure, evil satisfaction.

It was the look of killers.  Bruce could feel the Other Guy inside him, and he was growling.  Words whispered in his head: “Puny god is _back_.”  If Tony had gone down…

Here’s the thing:  The Hulk is never _not_ there.  There is never a time when Bruce couldn’t let him out; there is never a time when it wouldn’t be satisfying if he did let him out.  Who doesn’t like seeing bad people get hurt? Who doesn’t get so angry that they’d like to smash things sometimes? Be honest: If you didn’t have to get any blame for your destruction, what would you do?  Even if it did make everyone look at you like you’re a ticking time-bomb, even more than they did before.

If Tony had gone down, Bruce would have let the Other Guy out, and he would have had zero regret.  That would have been for the evil look, and it would have been for how his face changed immediately afterward.  Suddenly all that was on it was fear and sadness.

“ _Puny god_ ,” Bruce hears in his head, and, “ _Yeah_ ,” he mentally whispers back.

Only Tony didn’t fall, and after a second or two, there he was, even being his usual joke-y self.  “Hey, Reindeer Games,” he says, “long time no see.” And his eyes go up and down Loki’s form, taking in his Napoleonic-looking costume, now stained and torn, and especially lingering on the handcuffs and gag that Thor put on him, right after he was captured.  “Nice outfit,” Tony says.

Bruce looked for the anger that should have flared in Loki’s eyes, at the mockery, but it wasn’t there.  All there was, was the same fear and sadness. He held up his hands, which were cradling the Tesseract, and he gave a look of pathetic appeal.  Loki is an illusionist, he does pathetic appeal really well.

Their initial thought was that they had to give him back to Thor…  Correction:  Tony and Bruce never at any point thought that they shouldn’t give him back, only how were they supposed to do that?  How would they get in touch with him? The hypothesis that they finally came to, though, was that Thor would know his brother was here, because that was what had happened the last time.  

Tony took the Tesseract, and he put it on a table.  “We’ll give that to SHIELD later,” he says. Bruce agreed, even though those top-government brass kind of people always rub him the wrong way.  It was the right thing to do, though, so he agreed. Then Tony gestured Loki over to one of the piled-up sofas. “You sit there,” he said, “until we figure out what to do with you.”

After that, Tony looked at Bruce, and he said, “You can have the Other Guy watch him if you want.”  Bruce wanted to, oh god, he wanted to. He thought about watching him, and he heard Hulk’s voice again, and Hulk was laughing.  What stopped him?

It wasn’t Loki, that’s for sure.  Bruce knew Loki was plotting something.  But what stopped him, it’s weird to say it, sort of desperate-sounding:  What stopped him was friendship. Because he might not have meant much by it, but Tony meant something, when he said he was Bruce’s friend.  Bruce notices again that Tony’s only wearing his helmet and his gloves. He looks over at the Iron Man case, sitting by the toolbox. He thinks how they just barely got JARVIS back online, and maybe there might still be some malfunctions in its system somewhere.  What if Hulk did something, and he brought the whole building down? What if Tony couldn’t get the suit on in time, what would happen then?

“I’ll watch him myself,” Bruce says.  He tries to get the tone of Hulk into his voice, but you know how that kind of thing goes.  He looks at Loki, and he says, “I’ll watch him.”

Loki gives him a look of fear, that’s probably faked.  Tony was fooled, though, and he nods, and turns back to his work.  “Good man, Bruce,” he says. “We make a good team, don’t we?”


	3. Neither of Them Trusted SHIELD

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Ow, she's a brick house.  
> She's mighty-mighty, just lettin' it all hang out.  
> She's a brick house,  
> That lady's stacked and that's a fact,  
> Ain't holding nothing back.  
> 
> 
> Ow, she's a brick house.  
>  Well put-together, everybody knows,  
>  This is how the story goes.  
> 
> 
> She knows she got everything  
>  That a woman needs to get a man, yeah, yeah.  
>  How can she lose with the stuff she use?  
>  Thirty-six, twenty-four, thirty-six oh what a winning hand.”  
>  \-- The Commodores, “Brick House”

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** ****  
**Characters: Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Loki of Asgard** **  
** **Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.]**

Maybe it’s irrational:  It felt like Loki showing up ruined something.  Before that, it was like Bruce and Tony were suspended in a safe little bubble.  They’d been _fixing_ things for a change, instead of breaking them.  Does that sound self-pitying? Maybe. It’s hard, living with somebody else in your body who never does anything but _smash_.

At any rate, though, before Loki arrived, things seemed fairly pleasant.  Then after he showed up it was like reality had come back, like it had dumped all its unpleasantness back in their laps again.  And they both showed it. Tony’s way of showing it. -- This will tell you a lot about him. -- His way was that he started working twice as hard, and for twice as long.  The day before Loki, Tony and Bruce had worked until it started getting dark, AKA, until about 7:30. The day he got there, Tony was at it until practically eleven. He kept telling his AI, “More light, JARVIS, more light,” until it seemed like every light in the whole building was on, at full power, and you could probably see the Tower from space.  He kept telling it to turn the music up too, blasting the most aggressive Heavy Metal you can possibly imagine, until it was a wonder that the police didn’t show up, and arrest all of them.

Bruce’s way of showing how he felt:  Well, who in the world doesn’t know what Bruce Banner does when he gets mad?   _That_ didn’t happen, FYI; there were no Hulk incidents.  Frustration would come, and Bruce would push it back.  He was watching Loki, if you’ll remember. Loki, at this point, was basically a prisoner of war.  Try imagining that you’re in charge of a guy who’s just led an invasion on your city. It’s not easy to treat people like that humanely, is it?  It’s even harder, when there’s a big dark thing inside of you, that doesn’t know what “humane” even means. Bruce managed it, but it was hard.

This was Bruce, watching Loki that night:  At first he stood around. He would watch Loki for awhile, to make sure he wasn’t up to anything, and then he would turn and watch Tony work.  Watching Tony was straight-up boring. Repairing things yourself at least occupies your mind. Watching other people do it? Half the time you can’t even tell what they’re doing.  It was better than watching Loki, though, it was, shall we say, _safer_.  Every time Bruce would look at Loki, he’d get this smug look on his face.  “I know you’re looking at me,” his expression would say, “and I know you’re worried about me, and I like it.”

That look made Bruce want to hit things…  No, that’s a lie, it made Hulk want to hit things.  After awhile, Bruce had to stop looking at Loki anymore.  He knew the little bastard was going to notice, and that it would make him even smugger, but a smug Loki was still better than a smashed Tower.

After this, Bruce looked at the Tesseract.  He thought about how Tony said they were going to turn it over to SHIELD.  He thought about how SHIELD had used it the last time they had it. What if Fury couldn’t make them give it back to Thor again this time?

Ugly thoughts will get into your head, if you let them,and doubts, and all kinds of worries.  Bruce went from thinking about the cube, to thinking about Loki. He thought about the Hulk-proof cage on the helicarrier.  That one hadn’t been able to contain Loki, but what about the next one? What if SHIELD wouldn’t give him back to Thor either?  What if Fury didn’t even try and make them?

Notice, this was where Bruce started thinking about Loki differently.  This was to continue. He was also thinking about Fury differently… No, that’s not true.  Those doubts have always been there. They’re irrational, no point in even talking about them.  If anybody in SHIELD is a good guy, it would be Nick Fury. The doubts are there, though; there’s no doubt, they’re there.

Tony worked until eleven, at any rate.  Bruce was just there. He was supposed to be watching Loki, what he mostly did was think about what they should do with him and the Tesseract.  He didn’t eat. One of the things that had gotten destroyed in the invasion was the refrigerator. There were all kinds of random snacks in Tony’s cupboards, but they were all things like dried fruits, and crackers, no solid food.  Anyway, Tony was probably going to want to get some food after he finished. This proved to be correct.

New York really is the city that never sleeps.  You can get anything, any time of day or night, there.  What Tony got was a lot of Chinese food. Then he and Bruce were perched on stacks of furniture, eating noodles and things, out of those white take-out boxes.

“We’ve got to keep Loki ourselves.”  This was Tony, talking through a mouthful of dumpling.  Bruce hadn’t mentioned any of his concerns yet, but of course he’d been having similar ones.  “We can hide him here at the Tower,” Tony says. “And the Tesseract. We can’t trust SHIELD with either of them, can we?”

“Can we trust Loki?”  This was Bruce’s one concern, after he’d done everything he could to _get_ captured, the other time.

“We still have a Hulk.”  Of course. The inevitable nuclear option.  Tony tried to pretty it a little up afterward, after it occurred to him that maybe Bruce might have some thoughts about that.  But really, what was he going to say? Bruce is a weapon. Occasionally, weapons are going to get used.

They got their plan in place, anyway.  (Hide Loki from SHIELD, _Hulk smash_ , if he tries anything.)  After that, Bruce went on to the logical next step:  “I guess we’d better take the mask off him,” he said.  “We don’t know when Thor’s coming back, and he might need to eat.”

The difference between a physicist and an engineer, right here:  Tony immediately became delighted. “Definitely we’ll take it off,” he said.  “Come here, Loki,” he gestured for him to move his head. “Let me see how that thing fastens.”


	4. Do You Have Such a Thing as Sanctuary, in Midgard?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Walk with me,  
> Suzy-Lee,  
> Through the park and by the tree.  
> We will rest upon the ground,  
> And look at all the bugs we found.  
> Safely walk to school without a sound,  
> Safely walk to school without a sound.  
> 
> 
> Here we are,  
>  No one else.  
>  We walked to school all by ourselves.  
>  Theres dirt on our uniforms  
>  From chasing all the ants and worms.  
>  We clean up and now it’s time to learn,  
>  We clean up and now it’s time to learn.”  
>  \-- The White Stripes, “We’re Going to be Friends”

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** ****  
**Characters: Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Loki of Asgard** **  
** **Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.]**

Clarification:  Tony’s delight was only partly because of the opportunity to work with the new tech.   _Part of it was pure revenge_.  

How else to explain the joy he seemed to get, whenever his manipulations of the gag would provoke a reaction from Loki?  A grunt, a gasp of pain… Remember, Tony was using Earth tools, on a device that had been made thousands of light years away, a device that, for all he knew, might be controlled by magic anyway, rather than through a means he’d ever learned.  He also seemed to have chosen the sharpest tools he could, to do the job. After a tiny-tipped Phillips-head screwdriver drew blood on Loki’s cheek, Tony even started humming. Well, it was better than if he’d cackled evilly, anyway.

To be fair, Loki did throw Tony out a window, at one point during the invasion.  Anyone would feel vengeful after that, wouldn’t they? And he did finally get the gag off.  Loki immediately started in on another one of his tirades. “Incompetent,” “ham-fisted,” and “cack-handed” were just some of the epithets he used.

Tony got this expression on his face…  Have you heard the term “a shit-eating grin?”  Best way to describe it: Tony _looked_ the way Hulk _felt_ , right after he smashed Loki into the floor.

It was up to Bruce to keep things going.  “You could have gone anywhere with the Tesseract,” he said to Loki.  “Why did you come here?”

“Obvious, I was afraid.”  At some point, Loki seemed to have given up his original plan of pretending he was some kind of victim.  Here’s another colloquial expression you may have heard of: “Phoning it in.” Loki was definitely phoning this in.

“I was terrified,” he said, in a voice that sounded anything but.  “And I thought, where in all the Nine Realms can I go, that I will be safe?  And the answer, so obviously, was to give myself to the man who obsessively builds armor for himself, because he’s afraid of the entire world, and the stupid green monster.”

“Funny.”  Tony gritted the word.  “That’s absolutely hilarious,” he said.

When you _have_ to control your temper, people start _expecting_ you to control your temper.  It would have been fun to let Hulk smash the mouthy little bastard into the drywall, that Bruce and Tony had just spent the entire morning installing.  What good would it have done, though? “Tony, cool down,” Bruce pointed out instead. “He’s pushing your buttons on purpose.”

“Oh, no, of course I am doing no such thing,” said Loki, who couldn’t seem to stop mouthing off, now that he’d started.  “I am doing nothing at all, except looking forward with bated breath to the next time your friend here decides to dig his tools into all my most sensitive areas.  Genius-playboy-philanthropist? Ha,” he said. “Try clumsy, sex-obsessed fool.”

Maybe it was Bruce’s warning, maybe it was the sheer extent of all Loki’s blather that did it.  Tony had cooled down at that point, though. “I’ll give you that drink now, Reindeer Games, if you still want it,” he said.  “Also, I think there’s still some Chinese food left, if you’re hungry. Give him a box that’s got plenty of our saliva in it, will you, Bruce?”

Bruce gave him some leftover lo mein.  Loki fell on it like he hadn’t eaten in a millennium.  While he ate, Tony plied him with questions. “So, what are the handcuffs for?”

“Magic-deterrent.”  Said, through a mouthful of noodles.  In some ways, Loki has some things in common with Tony.

“But you changed into Cap, right before we met SHIELD.”

“And miss one last opportunity of wearing America’s butt?”  Loki took another gulp of the lukewarm water that was all there was to drink in the Tower except for aged Scotch, since Tony had already finished all his disgusting green juice.  Thirst quenched, he went for another mouthful of noodles. “I said magic- _deterring_ ,” he said, again with his mouth full, “not magic- _cancelling_.  Don’t Midgardians know what simple words mean?”

“What about with the gag on?” -- If it seems like Tony was focusing on this issue a little?  It seemed like that to Bruce at the time, too. It was like he’d gone off on a tangent, like his curiosity about the ins and outs of how magic worked were distracting him.  Admittedly, the added details were interesting. -- “Can you do magic then too?”

“Put it back on…”  Loki stopped. He gestured at Bruce, “Have him put it on,” he said, “and I’ll show you.”

There is a catch on the back of the gag, just in case anyone is curious.  Possibly it can be worked remotely, using magic. It’s also fairly simple to trigger manually, just using some simple tools.  It is not possible to do this completely painlessly. Bruce did, for some reason, try to be as gentle as he could when he did it, though.

Gag on, Loki did another transformation, his brother this time.  “Dost Mother know thou wearest her drapes?” He looked at Tony. “I’ll confess, that one wasn’t bad, for a Midgardian.”

Bruce removed the gag again.  He was ...somewhat less gentle about it, this time.  Those cracks about “mere lowly Midgardians” can get somewhat annoying.

“So,” says Tony, starting up again immediately with his questioning, “about the real reason you came here?  Why was it?”

“I told you already, I was terrified,” Loki starts again.  He stops, as soon as he realizes nobody’s taking him seriously.  “Have you such a thing as sanctuary, here in Midgard?” he said instead.  “I wish not to be returned to Asgard, until I am ready.”


	5. I Would Try These S'Mores of Which You Spoke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Did you think we'd we be fine?  
> Still got scars in my back from your knives,  
> So don't think it's in the past,  
> These kind of wounds they last and they last.  
> Now did you think it all through?  
> All these things will catch up to you  
> In time can heal but this won't,  
> So if you come in my way,  
> Just don't.  
> Oh it's so sad to think about the good times,  
> You and I.  
> [Chorus:]  
> ‘Cause baby now we've got bad blood.  
> You know it used to be mad love,  
> So take a look what you've done.  
> ‘Cause baby now we've got bad blood, hey!  
> Now we've got problems,  
> And I don't think we can solve 'em.  
> You made a really deep cut,  
> And baby now we've got bad blood, hey!”  
> \-- Taylor Swift, “Bad Blood”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: You know, I honestly don't feel like this is the best story I've ever written. Not by a long shot. And yet I continue... It feels like I'm learning things when I write it, that will maybe be useful later on. I hope some readers will get some enjoyment as it goes along, so it's not just me putting my prep-work for later stories on display, for the whole world to see.

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** ****  
**Characters: Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Loki of Asgard** **  
** **Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.]**

Sanctuary:  Protection, in other words.  Because whoever it was who helped Loki with his invasion, was mad because he’d failed.

“Why not just go home?” Tony said.  “You know your dad would protect you.”

“I know he’d try,” was Loki’s response.

At the time, it seemed pretty obvious what Loki was doing.  If there was a powerful enemy coming to attack him, let it happen on Earth, that way Asgard would be safe.  He’d already said about a jillion times that he planned to be King of Asgard someday, and he’d made it quite clear as well, what he thought of the Earth.  There was some of this in his thinking, it turned out later. It also turned out that what he was really thinking was more complicated, and more frightening.

That didn’t come out until later, though.  At the time, their assumptions were much different.  They were also, pretty much unspoken. Loki was still an enemy, at the time.  You don’t tell your enemy what you think of them, or what you expect them to do.

“Oh, so you think the _puny mortals_ can do a better job of protecting you than your father?” Tony said instead.  “Your father, _who’s a god_?”  He was toying with Loki.  There was no way they could refuse to keep him, at least not until Thor came back.  “I don’t know,” Tony said. “You Asgardians are so strong and all. Maybe we should be asking for sanctuary from you.”

“You could try, but I wouldn’t give it.”  Loki, like Tony, always has a mouth on him.  “You know what I think of mere, mortal worms,” he says.

It was a joke, and Tony ignored it.  “You can stay for now,” he said. “You keep the chains on, but you don’t have to wear the gag.  And when Thor gets back, he takes you and the Tesseract back to Asgard.”

“Agreed.”  Loki’s expression said he didn’t see that happening any time soon.  Later on, he explained why. Later on, he did things to make sure his brother would stay away, but that was after they were all getting along a lot better than they were at this point.  Loki was still an enemy, remember? For that matter, Tony and Bruce had just barely started thinking that maybe they might be friends.

You could see that Loki really wanted to tell them his whole story.  He clearly had it all in his mind, and he was just itching to say it all.  He kept giving them openings, he’d say a little something, “That reminds me of Thanos,” say, or ”Oh, when I was falling between the worlds,” something like that.  Bruce and Tony didn’t give him any chance, though, because of course, they wouldn’t have believed anything he said. He was an enemy, and he was a proven liar, as they both had good reason to know.  At that point, they didn’t know him well enough to be able to recognize when he was telling the truth, so they just didn’t get into it.

Instead, they talked about practical things.  “We can’t risk anybody finding out about this,” Tony said, “not even Pepper.”  Pepper’s Tony’s girlfriend. Maybe they should have told her about Loki then, because from the looks of it, she’s usually a lot better at handling things than he is.  He never tells her anything, though. He said he once kept it from her that he was dying, although, being Tony, he might have been exaggerating about that. He does keep a lot of stuff from her, though, and he never considered even once for a second, at that point, that maybe he should, you know, _tell_ her they were holding the guy that had just invaded New York prisoner, in what was left of Stark Tower?  It never even occurred to him.

Because that’s where they ended up having to stay, see?  Because Tony has this great penthouse, in the old Stark New York building, but heaven forbid they take Loki there, because Pepper was there.  And of course Bruce didn’t have anyplace where they could take him. Bruce had been staying in an over-priced hotel room that he’d rented after the invasion, that supposedly SHIELD was going to pay for, if he remembered to send them the receipts.  He didn’t even have the room anymore, since he’d maxed his credit card out, paying for the nights he’d been there already.

So Tony says, “Well, we’re going to have to stay here, fortunately JARVIS is up and running again.  We’ll just have to move some of the furniture down to one of the floors that still has a roof over it.”  He threw a nasty look at Loki, reminding him whose fault it was that the penthouse didn’t still have a roof, then he looked at Bruce.  “Any chance the big guy could help with the moving?”

Sure, that’s going to happen.  Ever. For any reason. “I’ll take Loki,” Bruce offered instead.  “Can’t you use the suit to move the furniture?”

He could.  But, as it turned out, it wasn’t the weight of the furniture that was the problem.  Tony did use the suit, and for the first couple pieces, he went out of his way to make it look dramatic.  Iron Man levitating a sofa, using repulsor beams? Bruce and Loki saw that. Also, Iron Man flying a King Size mattress up to what was left of the ten-foot cathedral ceiling in the penthouse, and Iron Man twirling a granite coffee table on one finger.  What happened, though, was they quickly found out there was only so much you could fit onto the elevators. This couldn’t have been an issue of the size of the furniture, could it? The movers had gotten it up there somehow, and there wasn’t a service elevator.

What it was, was that they had finally discovered one of Tony Stark’s limitations.  “Apparently being a genius-playboy-philanthropist doesn’t make you a furniture mover,” Bruce said.  This was while Tony was working overtime to get one of smaller mattresses into the elevator.

Tony finally squeezed  it in. He looked back at Bruce.  “I could read up tonight.”

“Don’t.”  Bruce and Loki were putting chairs into the other elevator. -- And if you think Reindeer Games wasn’t making a big deal about having to carry his, you don’t know the mouthy little bastard. -- Bruce tilted the modernist Eames chair he was holding, so that Loki’s would fit as well, and they’d still have room for the coffee table.  “I like you having limitations,” he said to Tony. “It makes you human.”

Was it weird, considering the circumstances, that he and Tony were bantering like that?  It’s amazing how fast you get used to things. They were there with Loki, whom they both considered an enemy at the time, and there was the matter of a more dangerous enemy, who might be stalking the Universe, looking for him.  Nevertheless, by the end of the evening, they were relaxed, they were almost having fun.

Tony, with a flashlight under his chin, like he was about twelve:  This was about four AM, after they’d carried everything down. “We’re having a sleepover,” he said.

It did feel like that, with their living arrangements so jury-rigged and all.  The floor they’d chosen was set up for mixed-martial arts fighting. -- Which is, apparently, one of Tony’s hobbies? -- There were two mattresses in the ring, Tony’s on one side, Bruce’s on the other.  Loki had the bare floor in between, with just a blanket to soften it.

“I’m sure you’ll be very comfortable,” Tony told him.

Loki rolled his eyes.  He was pretty relaxed at this point too.  “Spare me, Man of Iron,” he said.

After that, Tony made some comments about how apparently the Master of Mischief wasn’t also a Master of Nicknames, and then after that they set up the rest of their things:  Coffee table at the end of the ring, StarkComputer on top, for a TV. Chairs and a couple of end tables went on the floor, at one end of the room for when they ate, they put the guest toothbrushes and other things from one of the bathrooms upstairs, in the little bathroom down the hall, and they were all set.  After that they hunkered down under some blankets from the penthouse, and got ready to go to sleep.

And Tony does the thing with the flashlight.  “It is like a sleepover,” he said. “And Bruce is my best friend, that I wanted to invite, and Loki is the nerd from down the street, that my mom made me invite.  All we need is some s’mores.”

“S’mores?”  It wasn’t until a lot later that Bruce and Tony found out why Loki was getting so fascinated every time they even mentioned food.  Probably just as well. Not like they’d have cared much, if they’d found out when they were still so mad at him. “What are s’mores?” he says.

“Graham crackers and marshmallows,” Tony says, “and I think there’s some chocolate in there.  Gods wouldn’t like them.” Loki looks like he wants to interrupt, and say gods would like them just fine, but Tony didn’t give him the time, though.  He just kept on going, “Anyway, we don’t have any marshmallows. That means we have to tell ghost stories instead.”

One thing about having the Hulk for an alter ego?  Telling ghost stories with a psycho alien who just tried to invade Earth is not the weirdest thing Bruce has ever done.  “Who goes first?” he said.

Tony pointed to the space in between the mattresses.  “Loki. Because he owes me, because I let him come to my sleepover.”

“I will tell how my next invading army is going to annihilate all of you,” Loki said.  “That should be terrifying enough. But you must give me food. I would try these ‘s’mores’ of which you spoke.”


	6. Pepper Has Some Things to Say About the Situation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “The glove compartment is inaccurately named,  
> And everybody knows it,  
> So I'm proposing a swift orderly change.
> 
> 'Cause behind its door, there's nothing to keep my fingers warm,  
> And all I find are souvenirs from better times,  
> Before the gleam of your taillights fading east  
> To find yourself a better life.
> 
> I was searching for some legal document,  
> As the rain beat down on the hood,  
> When I stumbled upon pictures I tried to forget,  
> And that's how this idea was drilled into my head,
> 
> 'Cause it's too important to stay the way it's been,  
> There's no blame for how our love did slowly fade,  
> And now that it's gone, it's like it wasn't there at all.  
> And here I rest where disappointment and regret collide,  
> Lying awake at night.”  
> \-- Death Cab for Cutie, “Title and Registration”

**[Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe** ****  
**Characters: Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Loki of Asgard, Pepper Potts** **  
** **Author’s note: This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.]**

There are S’mores-flavored Pop Tarts, did you know that?  And you can get them delivered at 5:00 AM, at least you can in New York.  Tony got about a dozen boxes of them for Loki. “Thor likes them,” he said.  “You should too.”

Loki ate them, after some of his usual disparaging comments about his brother.  He ate them quickly, in big bites… Here’s the thing: Tony and Bruce had both seen Thor eat.  They’d also heard stories from Dr. Selvig and Dr. Foster. Asgardians normally eat a lot. Was that why they didn’t pick up that there was something different about Loki’s eating?

No, it was the enemy-thing again.  Because neither of them wanted to look too closely at anything Loki was doing, because they didn’t like him.  So, he devoured everything in sight, like he’d been starved for weeks, and he drank everything you gave him, dusty bathroom-water included, and Bruce and Tony just sort of looked the other way.  They saw, but they didn’t see. See? That was how it was, even though it should never have been.

Never mind.  Loki ate a full Family-Sized box of Pop Tarts.  That’s 24 packets, FYI. He made Bruce get him some bathroom-water, and he drank that, and then he ate some more.  Then he started telling his story. Here’s how it started: “Once, mankind accepted a simple truth: that they were not alone in this universe. Some worlds, man believed home to their Gods. Others they knew to fear. From around the cold and darkness came the Frost Giants, threatening to plunge the mortal world into a new ice age…”  This was where Tony interrupted for the first time.

“I said a _ghost story_ ,” he said.  “What are Frosty Whatevers?”

“Frost _Giants_.”  Loki huffed irritation (and Pop Tart crumbs).  “They’re evil monsters, worse than anything your pitiful brain could ever possibly imagine.  And, unlike your so-called ‘ghosts,’ they are real. May I continue now?”

“I said ghosts.”  They’d turned off the lights at this point, and the room was dark.  Bruce didn’t see what was happening, but he heard it: First the sound of scuffling, and then some crackling noises.  Tony was taking a package of Pop Tarts. “That’s your ransom for telling this story about Frosty Things,” he says, “when I specifically asked for ghosts.  You can go on now.”

Loki did.  “Humanity,” he said, “did not face this threat alone. Asgardian warriors drove the Frost Giants back into the heart of their own world.”

Tony interrupted again.  “What’s so bad about Frost Giants anyway?” he said.  “You talk about them like they’re monsters.”

The sound Bruce heard this time was a thudding noise, mixed with the clank-clank of Loki’s leg-irons.  He heard Tony go, “Ow!” Loki must have kicked him.

“ _Will_ you let me finish my story?” Loki said.

“Sure, fine, whatever.” Tony said.  “I’m just saying, Frost Giants don’t sound all that bad.  So what if they’re monsters anyway? A monster just saved my life the other day, if you’ll remember.  A green monster?”

Tony is always talking about the Hulk like he’s a good thing.  It’s just one of the things he does: turn your liabilities into assets; it’s a business-thing, isn’t it?  Now he was doing the same thing for Frost Giants, but unlike Bruce, Loki was pushing back. “They’re _monsters_ ,” he repeated.  “All monsters are bad, get that through your thick mortal head.  Now, to finish my story? The cost of battle was great, for the Frost Giants. In the end, their king fell, and the source of their power was taken from them. After that, Asgard withdrew from the other worlds and returned home, to the Realm Eternal. There we remained as the beacon of hope, shining out across the stars... I’d be there now, were it not for the idiocy of my so-called ‘father,’ and ‘brother.’”

“As stories go?  That one sucks.”. You could hear Pop Tart crumbs in Tony’s mouth now, as well as in Loki’s. -- It was at this point, that Bruce sat up and got some of the Pop Tarts too.  It was almost six, after all. Why not just give up on sleep, and call this the morning? -- Tony called to JARVIS, which turned on some lights. “Your story sucked, Reindeer Games,” he told Loki.  “There were no ghosts in it, and I still say, the Frost Giants don’t sound all that bad. Monsters, pfft. So what? That’s just a word. Hulk’s a monster, and I like him.”

“Go be best friends with the Frost Giants, if you love them so much,” Loki grumbled.  “You can freeze with them, in their miserable realm.” He rolled over, scattering Pop Tart wrappers.  “I’m going to sleep now, _if_ I can, with both of you talking.”\

“Or I can turn on some TV and we can all chill here in our underwear?”  This was Tony. He gets fun out of just about everything, it’s how he’s built or something.  “Let’s see what’s on,” he said. “JARVIS, what do you think Loki would like?”

“How about a how-to video on world domination?”  More Tony Stark-fun: Naturally, his AI has as much of a mouth on him as Tony does.  A holo-screen opened, about a foot above the laptop. For a second, there was a black-and-white movie on, showing Hitler, dancing with a giant blow-up globe, or some such weirdness.  Then JARVIS switched them to some cartoons.

Remember that bit from earlier, about how telling ghost stories with an alien invader isn’t the weirdest thing Bruce has ever done?  Watching Bugs Bunny cartoons with one might be, or at least it comes closer. They watched several.  All of them had Marvin the Martian in them. Every time he’d appear onscreen, Tony would nudge Loki with his toe.  “There, that’s you,” he’d say.

At first, Loki hissed with irritation every time.  “I’m trying to _sleep_ ,” he kept saying.  Finally, he gave up and sat up to watch too, and by the last cartoon, he was laughing.

They were all laughing, by that point, and they were having about as much fun as they could have, under what were, after all, kind of weird circumstances.  And then, of course, that was when Pepper showed up. She had some things to say about the situation.


End file.
